Foreword by the Author:

To the loyal fan(s)? I guess?

Welp, here it is I guess. I've had to rewrite it twice, the first time because I had an ambitious idea that turned out to be stupid... and the second time because I had an ambitious idea that turned out to be stupid. But I didn't quit, despite me being kind of a fickle person in general.

It took about 3 months to rewrite all the work I did, and a bout of depression that made the prolouge really difficult for some reason. And now I'm kicking the story out the door as it rolls face first into a ravine. The short version, regular updates will be returning shortly, but here's all of chapter 1 at once!

I reccomend reading Danganronpa XX first, because it's technically going to be a trilogy and continuity is hard.

Enjoy? Maybe get some ginger ale, this is gonna take a while.

Prologue: Helplessness Blues (Part 1)

From: Junichi ( )

To: Dad

Hey dad. It's Junichi… since I'm sending this from my e-mail I just wanted to make sure you didn't think this was spam or something. I know you're still another year or two out from coming back from the United States since you're helping make that fancy skyscraper in Chicago, but I wanted to send you the good news, and you didn't seem to be answering me or Mom's phone calls.

I won the draw. I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student, dad! I'm outside the Hope's Peak gate right now! This building is way bigger up close than you see on TV. It's like 5 times bigger than that little middle school I used to go to. To be honest, I didn't really think I would end up being anything cool like the Ultimate Lucky Student. To be honest, I wasn't that cool in the first place… You always called me a dork for collecting model boats as a kid and I thought that was my peak.

But now I'm here, heading to the best school in the country. I'm gonna make you and mom proud. I'd better get going, my new classmates are out on the grounds waiting for me. I'll call you when I get some free time. Hopefully this leads to me getting a job good enough so you and mom can retire early.

"Doesn't seem like there's any typoes…" Junichi said before he hit the send button, taking his eyes from his phone and looking up at the gate over Hope's Peak, looking up at the massive building again. The towering school stood tall for centuries, the symbol of Japan's best and brightest coming together; Industry leaders, sports and entertainment stars, masters of arts, science, medicine, politics, all walked through those doors and joining them today...

"...is me." Junichi muttered to himself as he brought his eyes down to see students gathered around the school entrance, engaged in several conversations all at once. Some were meeting up with old friends to discuss plans for the school year, others were on the recruitment drive for clubs both new and old, a few of them waved to Junichi as they spotted him outside the gate with Junichi waving back. And finally there were the Ultimate Students, Junichi's new classmates. All the students were dressed in the standard Hope's Peak uniform and filing in by the dozens. On each side flocked dozens of stands with hobby clubs and people handing pamphlets.

Anime clubs, sporting clubs, cooking clubs, clubs for fandoms of certain TV shows and movies lined each side, each one handing out application forms. Junichi felt like he stuck out like a red haired sore thumb, wearing a ratty beanie with his messy red hair sticking out of it. He was wearing a black hoodie with a skull design on it and 21 emblazoned on front and a grey T-shirt underneath it. Along with a pair of jeans with holes in the knees, his old, tattered set of sneakers he got for his 14th birthday.

To put it simply, he just looked like some kid. Not a student to one of the best schools in the entire nation. Winning the Ultimate Lucky Student meant any of his onboarding fees for transfering to this school were waived, and his plain C grades were ignored, meaning he skipped both barriers to entry.

"Eh! It's Junichi Ando. Surprised ya showed up." A taller man with tied back cornrows said, patting Junichi on the back.

"You know my name?" Junichi replied, putting his phone away into his back pocket and looking at the uniform clad student.

"Of course I know your name, you won the contest, dummy." He said with a laugh, rubbing under his nose and looking down at the much shorter Lucky Student with a grin on his face.

"That was public?"

"It has to be public so other people know the drawing's over." He explained, gently punching him on the shoulder. "Anyway, I'm Togaka Maru. They call me the Ultimate Capoeira Fighter." He said, pointing a thumb to himself.

Togaka Maru: Ultimate Capoeira Fighter

"Uhh… Capoeira? Is that the dancy-fight thing? I think I remember that from Tekken." Junichi said, scratching the back of his head.

"That's the one! Slaves learned the art of teaching each other how to fight, while it looking like it was just dancing. Then they sprung it on owners by surprise, it's an artform in itself, dawg!" Togaka said.

"I thought you'd be mad a video game portrayed your fighting style." Junichi said.

"Dude, my style being in a video game is free publicity. My Mestre got a huge influx of clumsy and curious new students when they found out about it. There's nothing bad about that." Togaka said with a chuckle. "Anyway, you gotta stand around all day or are you gonna come join us?" he asked as he stepped through the threshold of the gate. Junichi nodded and followed Togaka, thinking about his fellow Ultimates.

Unlike the years before, Hope's Peak was a lot more open about the student roster on their website, so Junichi got to look up their profiles while getting ready for this day. He had seen Togaka's name on the website, along with some other Ultimates:the Ultimate Poet, the Ultimate Stenographer, Ultimate Blogger, the Ultimate Circus Acrobat, the list went on. Junichi felt like he had a cinder block in his stomach as he and Togaka were lead by faculty to the school gym. Junichi walked through the halls in silent awe, taking in the small sights as he was guided with the other Ultimate Students into the gym, where banners were hung up with "Welcome to Hope's Peak Academy!" across them.

"So, what are we doing here?" Junichi asked.

"Headmaster's assembly is coming up, I guess. Then we'll figure out what classes we're being assigned to." Togaka said with a shrug. "Until then, I guess we're mingling, yeah?"

Junichi shrugged and walked over to one of the students, beaming a friendly smile. "Uh… hey, I'm Junichi. Nice to meet you." he said to a girl with ghostly white skin and ebony hair. She looked to him with crimson eyes, a disinterested look spread across her face.

"Uh-huh. I'm the Ultimate Poet. You can call me Ayumu Kobayashi." she said. "Now stop doing that."

Ayumu Kobayashi: Ultimate Poet

"Huh? What thing am I doing?" Junichi asked, scratching the back of his head.

"You're smiling. It's bothering me." Ayumu said, grabbing at the small plastic skull dangling off her neck and turning it in her fingers. "I need my misery undisturbed by the oppressive joy of the rest of you, so quit smiling at me."

"Well, if you're gonna be like that… forget I ever said anything." Junichi said, annoyed as he turned back to the stage.

"Gladly… wait, no! Not gladly! You! You put this on me! A thousand curses spoken on faint tongues upon thee!" Ayumu shouted, pointing angrily at Junichi.

"..." Junichi just pretended he didn't hear her.

"Stop ignoring me!" Ayumu spat out.

Junichi just kept his eyes on the stage, ignoring the angry goth girl threatening eternal shadows on his soul as he waited for the headmaster to arrive.

Out through the curtain came a man dressed in a black suit, his brown hair combed but with a strand still standing patting at it to try and make it go down before just giving up and checking his microphone to see if it worked.

"Good morning, new Students of Hope's Peak Academy. My name is Makoto Naegi and I'm the Headmaster." he began. "Congratulations to all of you for qualifying to join Hope's Peak Academy, but don't think that means you're not gonna have to work hard and apply yourself like in any other school. Hope's Peak can open doors for the future, but it's always up to you to go through those doors. And it's important to remember that even if you don't have a talent, you can still do great things. I came into this school as the Ultimate Lucky Student and now I'm here as Headmaster, passing knowledge and guidance onto the next generation of Ultimate Students." he explained, giving a small nod to Junichi in the crowd. Junichi chuckled nervously and began to scoot his seat toward the back of the crowd.

Makoto's speech was suddenly cut off by a loud banging sound. Smoke began to fill the room as fire alarms began to ring closer and closer to the room, fire began to spread up along the walls and engulf the gymnasium in flames. The students bolted from their seats, running confusedly through the smoke, the sound of the doors being forcefully opened ringing in their ears, followed by footsteps. Junichi suddenly felt a hand clasp around his mouth, feeling a damp cloth under his nose. Junichi struggled, but the cloth pressed to his mouth made him more and more exhausted on each breath. He soon passed out in his assailant's arms, being dragged away as the flash of muzzles and the rattle of bullets ripped through the smoke.

Students screamed as they heard the fire of automatic weapons, some being struck and others tripping over their fallen classmates. Makoto leapt off the stage, running into the cloud of smoke in the hope of saving his students only to be struck hard in the side of the head and sent to the floor. "Stay down, headmaster…" one of the gas-masked attackers said. "We got a message for you."

"G-get out of my school." Makoto sputtered out, rubbing his head and slowly getting up, only for the assailant to stomp his head onto the floor, the man aimed his assault rifle at the headmaster in response. "G-get the hell out of my school!"

"This ain't your school anymore. This is HAVOC's school now. We're taking over." he said, bending down to show that his mask was emblazoned with the orange eye of HAVOC. "Go back to your office and wait until sundown. Don't speak to the police, or Future Foundation or anybody else unless you want another Future Crest on your hands." he warned before lifting his foot off his chest and firing a warning shot that landed beside Makoto's head.

Makoto gritted his teeth as he slowly got to his feet, his ears ringing from the shot, the masked HAVOC agent turning his head toward the door. "Get moving, Naegi." he said, Makoto wading through the smoke as the sprinklers kicked in to quell the flames. Students sitting in the corners of the room nursing gunshot wounds with a massive hole in the wall where the explosives they sent off was.

"M-Makoto!" A female staffer ran up to him. "S-should I call for help!?"

"...Just call in an ambulance, Rina." Makoto said, HAVOC agents shoving him to push him along to the exit. "I'll be fine."

"B-but you're surrounded b-" Rina was met with the rifle butt of one of the people escorting Makoto back to his office, sending his staffer to the floor. Makoto felt his fists tighten before he kept moving toward the elevator, pressing the call button. The doors opened and Makoto stepped in with four HAVOC heavily armored, heavily armed HAVOC agents surrounding him. There was an uncomfortable familiarity in the silence as the elevator lifted off toward the top floor.

"B. Lock the doors, break any communication devices you find within the headmaster's office. Fleece Naegi and destroy his cell phone." One of the agents ordered, Makoto suddenly getting slammed into the elevator wall. The agent rooted through his pockets and finally grabbed Makoto's cell phone, dropping it into the floor before grabbing a pistol off his hip and shooting the phone twice.

"Okay, I didn't mean destroy his cell phone now but whatever, that's done. Weirdo." the agent said as the elevator dinged, the doors opening and the four HAVOC "escorts" pushing Makoto toward his office.

"A, should D and I go back and deal with the rest of the Ultimates? They'll know we were here." asked one of the agents with a woman's voice.

"If any of them feel like talking or stepping forward, put a hole in one of their heads. The rest will realize that's an example of what happens if they try to be brave. The boss wants this minimal casualties." The lead agent responded.

"That was just until we got Junichi and Naegi, though, right? We can take out the rest now that we've got them." another one said.

"No. We aren't one of our Daisuke's little band of malcontent psychos. We're gonna do the job and get out of here without leaving a blood trail." A replied.

"J-Junichi…?" Makoto asked as he stopped at the office doorway, B nudging him in with the tip of his assault rifle.

"Have a seat, Makoto." A said, Makoto reluctantly sitting at his desk. "We're gonna clean up and keep the rest of the school away from this room until a note from your beloved arrives. Until then, look pretty and do nothing."

Makoto nodded, the agents overturning the office to look for any potential ways for Makoto to reach the outside world before destroying them. B and D left the room, C walking over and locking the office door. "And now we play the waiting game…" C said, turning to face Makoto.

The hours passed slowly, Makoto watching the agents pacing the room in silence, hands gripping the arms of his chair as he continued to think about the students down on the ground floor, praying that they would be safe down there and that no one had set off the HAVOC agents.

Finally, there was a knock on the door, C turning and unlocking the door to allow a masked man in a dark blue suit to enter the office, briefcase in his hand. Makoto blinked and watched the masked man open the briefcase, pulling out a laptop and setting it up on Makoto's desk. The man opened the laptop and turned it on, the screen illuminating the room with an orange light from the HAVOC symbol.

"Hello, Naegi." A distorted voice spoke, flashing the orange light with the cadence of their voice. "I see you've met my muscle, I can look at your youthful face through the camera, it seems you've barely aged a year since your stint at Hope's Peak, huh?" The voice asked him with a chuckle.

"Why did you hurt my students?" Makoto asked.

"Easy answer to that. Who do you think I am?" The voice asked, taunting Makoto.

"...You're part of that group that dropped bombs on Kyoto, aren't you?" Makoto clenched his teeth, glaring at the pinhole sized camera on the laptop and at who was behind it.

"That's right. HAVOC finally makes its mark on Hope's Peak. We went after your students because I wanted the last player for my Killing Game. The 21st Killing Game, in fact. Ain't it funny that you and the Foundation you work with attempting to fix the problem only cause almost TWENTY more killing games? It's almost like you're doing it wrong." the voice taunted.

"...You were after Junichi, weren't you? You're the ones who kidnapped Saya Kiruma too, right?" Makoto asked.

"Heh, so maybe you're not as stupid as a thought you were, Headmaster. I've been waiting a long time to do this… To present true hope. Rio Daisuke was more debase. He was anger and chaos screaming into nothing. Unfortunately, he played his cards before I did, and blew up half a city as a 'fuck you' to the man." the voice said. "I've been gathering students from all over Japan for this extra special Killing Game. Maybe you can connect the dots on why this game is special."

Makoto sighed, sitting back in his chair. "H-how many more of these do we have to have!? These killing games don't do anything but make people hurt each other. Do you really need to make a 21st killing game!?" Makoto stated at the screen, running his hand in his hair and taking a deep breath to calm himself. "This world is bad enough, we have to focus on making it better."

"Well, Headmaster, you get to choose when this all stops. You run the damn school, you sponsor schools like it across the country. You can't just wring your hands and act like the killing games just started from the ether." The voice said with a bitter tone.

"They happen because of people like you!" Makoto snapped, slamming his hands on the desk. "You torture people because you don't understand they have families and lives! You act like people being happy is an act of spite against you!"

"...I kind of figured you didn't get it. Oh well. Here's what's gonna happen: You're my VIP, you get the box seats for this event. I know you feel left out after what happened to the Future Crest kids. So you're going to go down to the docks tonight by yourself. You'll shut your mouth, you'll get in the van. Tell Kyoko, the Future Foundation, or even your mom about this and we'll kill off the entire school. You don't want even more lives lost because of you, do you Makoto? Still wanna be the hero, Headmaster?" the voice asked.

"You're gonna make me watch." Makoto said.

"Sort of. You're my motive! I'm giving both the students of my killing game, and the Future Foundation an ultimatum. Let this killing game play out… or Makoto Naegi's execution plays live on TV."

"...Junko wanted us to live in that school for years once we resolved not to kill each other. Are you really thinking you'll have a captive audience once the students catch on? You're streaming it, right?" Makoto assessed.

"Newsflash, Makoto. We're not Junko. Junko was the Hope's Peak idea of Despair. She was all about misery and destruction without change. I'm making a mission statement, A2 is making a mission statement. We're not here to play." the voice said.

"What do you mean? I thought someone like her was your idol." Makoto objected, getting a low chuckle in response.

"She was a good template, but burned out her stay quickly. Junko lacked the bigger picture, she was too ill to have an actual idea. And let's face it, Makoto, you want us to be Junko again. Junko is safe, familiar. Junko is easy mode. You can break someone like Junko with just not doing what she wanted you to. It's like telling a dog not to chew your couch, it's like telling a baby not to drink bleach. HAVOC is something different and it scares you. It scares you because you don't know what they want or how to stop them. Which is fair, we're being enigmatic but that's because we don't want to make the same mistakes that Junko did. And sure, Rio Daisuke was a mistake, but we had to take people like him for the numbers." The voice responded, never once breaking the calm, mocking cadence.

"..." Makoto looked at the floor and shook his head.

"It's like honing the knife to the edge. You take as many people as you can stomach and whittle it down to the ones who are actually useful. Rio was a psychopath, I'm more of a sociopath to be honest. I have things I want, and I know how to get them."

"What do you think you'll end up pulling off that Junko couldn't?" Makoto asked, increasingly frustrated by the mocking attitude.

"Really now, Makoto? This season hasn't even started and you want the big villain monologue right now? I'm not a cheap date. You gotta do something for me if you want me to give up my special secrets." The voice said, letting out a laugh. "Ruahahaha!"

"What do you want with me, then!? You said I was a motive. What do you mean!?" Makoto demanded.

"21 days. The killing game only has a time limit of 21 days, that's it. Once the killing game starts and 21 days have passed, your execution will be broadcasted publically. And as a cherry on top… We've got another nuke pinned on Hope's Peak. If I catch wind that you snitched, and I'm being investigated by your stupid friends, I swear that high school will be turned to glass." The voice warned.

"And hey… here's one for the audience. I'll tell the others this one later during the killing game. I'm playing too. It's kind of why I felt like I should obscure my appearance, nobody likes spoilers." the voice said.

"...Wouldn't you be killed? What kind of plan means you get killed?" Makoto asked, knowing all too well of that risk from the Final Killing Game.

"I'm willing to take that risk, I've got my wits about me and a message worth dying for. Now, we've wasted enough time. I believe it's time you take a walk, Naegi. Remember to sneak out the back entrance, you're not deserving of attention." The voice said, the screen going black.

Makoto stood up from his desk and closed the laptop in front of him. His hands were trembling as he felt his head spiral in thought. Makoto punched his desk again, before biting down on his knuckle.

"We're leaving, Naegi." A said, Makoto leaving his office and entering the elevator. Reaching the ground floor, they could see the sirens of ambulances and police. "Looks like someone called the cops. Get B and D. We're going through the back."

C nodded and headed to the gym, gathering the remaining agents before they escorted Makoto through the back entrance where a black van with darkly tinted windows was waiting. Makoto carefully reached into suit jacket's pocket while pretending to check his watch. He pulled out flashcards he had stuffed into his pocket for his speech along with a black ink pen. He had to do this all without giving the HAVOC agents any idea of what he was doing. He slid the pen in his sleeve and put his hands behind his back, writing on a flashcard before crumpling it and dropping it on the floor.

The agents threw him in the back of the van, two of them sitting and watching him as they drove off. The drive was silent, Makoto sitting and waiting for the van to come to a stop. Once the van stopped, he was brought out to the an all too familiar sight.

"You again…" Makoto said with a scowl.

"Heya, Makoto! It's been way too long since I've seen you, buddy! Puhuhuhu~"

Hyper Danganronpa XXI: Diamond Double Barrel